Myeongwol
by Saphiress
Summary: When Niou thinks his finaly found the one, due to a promise they made before hand she dissapears from his life, nothing more than a perfect memory, but when he sees her one day on the street he sets off to find her, problem is she doesn't remember him
1. Chapter 1

_On the night Niou's father gets married his best friend/the guy he's had a crush on for years gets engaged, heart broken, it puts Niou off all the drunk and desperate brides maids and the other female guests...or so he thought. When the night ends Niou finds himself longing her but manages to move on, isolating his heart in a wall of ice, yet when he sees her again on the streets a year later he is devastated to discover she doesn't remember him or anyone for that matter..._

**Chapter 1**

"Will the bride and groom please take the floor?" announced the best man from the stage, Niou rolled his eyes as he watched his father step to the dance floor hand in hand with his new bride and Niou's new step-mother, she was a pretty woman, nice enough, he had no complaints but after how his father treated his mother when he was younger to the point of divorce, he was willing to make bets on how long this marriage would last.

Marui had taken the hand of one of the brides maids and was dancing with her, Kuwahara was chatting another while Yagyuu stood hand in hand with his long time girlfriend Hyuuga Alicia; half French half Japanese; in the corner. The knot in Niou's chest tightened as he looked away, he saw it, on her finger, the promise ring. Yagyuu had practiced for hours with Niou posing as Hyuuga to perfect the right way to ask for her hand in marriage. He took another sip of his beer, they were still in middle school, why rush?

No, he was just jealous, since the time Niou had asked Yagyuu to join the tennis club in their second year, he had been in love, he slept around enough to hide it but it still hurt, Yagyuu would never look at him that way, never.

"I'm not impressed with the turn out," remarked Niou as he walked towards Marui who had stopped for refreshments. "And the more I drink the _less_ attractive they get…" He knew full well it was just his bitterness speaking.

"Ha!" replied Marui. "Look at that crowd of girls," he nudged to a group of bridesmaids sitting together.

"The cheerleader effect, look at them as individuals my good man," said Niou. The cheerleader effect was when a group of woman looked attractive only when they were in a group, look at them individually and they weren't so, unlike his fellow tennis club members, he had his father's wisdom to thank.

Marui took a closer look at them, this time one at the time. "Yeah…your right." He scanned the room, to see a black haired female dressed in a sapphire blue corset top gathered dress that matched her eyes. The dress revealed her the bare back of her pale skin, Marui wolf whistled. "You can _not_ say it's the cheerleader effect for that one."

Niou just shook his head as he watched his friend strut towards the girl, her hair was half up with Yagyuu's side fringe arranged in a elegant sophisticated manner revealing she was a good student virgin type, her eyebrows may have looked plucked but they weren't saying she wasn't into appearances, un-pierced ears; self explanatory, she wasn't wearing any cosmetics saying she was the type of girl who wasn't into the one night fling, Marui was doomed for failure.

He watched as she brushed him off coldly and took a bite cake, she stabbed the cake with her fork and took a sip from her glass; it looked like champagne, how'd she manage to get a glass? She looked no older than Niou. Marui walked back with disappointment on his face.

"You knew that would happen, didn't you? That's why you didn't even try," he accused Niou, his face red like his hair and maroon suit.

"Yep," replied Niou popping the 'p'. "Although a wise man said the best place to pick up chicks is at a wedding, some women heard him saying that as well."

"Pity," said Marui as he glanced back at her. "I wouldn't mind a bite of that apple." Niou just shook his head; walking up to a pretty in her own right bridesmaid he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Hi, my friend has been staring at you for so long it's pitiful, and as his friend I can't bear to watch it any long. So-" he pulled Marui over. "Your name?" he asked her. She grinned.

"Dana."

"Dana, pretty name… Dana, haaave you met Marui?" With that he left the two alone, his friends were sure fortunate they had a wing man like himself.

And once more he was alone, his eyes somehow kept looking back at the black haired female, she just sat by the marble pillars watching them dance, Niou could help smile as he watched her face light up as the bride and groom performed their _unpractised_ dance. She smiled and laughed yet she looked as if she had no intention of joining them, he shrugged and walked up to her.

"Hi," he greeted. "The poor red hair fellow you rejected not too long ago was a friend of mine." He said as he sat down beside her.

"Hmm, doesn't look very upset does he?" she remarked spotting Marui and the bridesmaid kissing. "Cake?" she held up a silver tray of individually cut and decorated cakes.

"Yes actually, thanks," he replied taking one. "How'd you get the entire tray to yourself?"

"I sweet talked one of the waiters," she replied. "If you're going to ask me to dance, I know better than to go any where with a guy I met at a wedding."

"I know you know, I saw you reject Marui and although he's kind of an idiot, he is _quite_ the charmer," said Niou. "I won't ask you anything just let me sit and wallow in my self guilt." Niou ate the cake.

"Aww, here have another one," she held up the tray for him.

"No thanks, but I wouldn't mind a sip of your champagne," said Niou, she handed him her glass and he took a gulp. "How'd you get one?" he asked honestly curious, he was the son of the _groom_ and he didn't get a glass because he was underage.

"Amazing what men do when they think your going to sleep with them," she replied. Niou snorted. "And when a girl had alcohol in her system who knows what they'll do."

"True, my gender is a simple minded and foolish kind but that's what makes us lovable," said Niou, she giggled and took back her glass, draining the last of its content. They two continued their pointless chattered about the wedding and picking at its flaws such as that the bride forgetting to shave her armpits.

"I just heard the funniest phrase from one of the bridesmaids," she said. Niou leaned forward, both high on sugar and slightly drunk. "The only reason to have sex is for love," she whispered, there was a momentary pause before both of them busted into laughter.

"I can name ten reasons right here and now," he replied.

"I can name twenty."

"Do it."

"Now?" Niou nodded. "Okay, umm…there's break-up sex, make-up sex, can't get to sleep sex, nothing on TV sex…"

"There's also revenge, rebound, curiosity," continued Niou.

"Curiosity?"

"Like there's this really _really_ tall girl, not a big girl, just a tall girl. A tall girl with super long legs wearing a supper short mini skirt… I'd have to know what that's like." Niou expected her to pour something on him in disgust but she laughed.

"True, very true."

"Oh! So when you do, can I watch?" she laughed lightly and just shook her head.

_Forty reasons later_

"Wow… this is getting hard," she admitted frowning.

"Forty-eight." She smiled. "The condoms are about to expire," said Niou.

"Forty-nine…Oh! You failed a subject so you argued with a teacher to change your score," she said.

"How is that…oh…I see. Wow, that's fifty, I'm glade I wrote them down," remarked Niou looking at the list they had began compiling on a fabric napkin when they reached the twenties.

"We should publish this," she said, Niou nodded, they smiled at each other when at that moment they both noticed something, the smiles faded. "We're getting swept up in the romantic setting of the wedding and the dazzling moon aren't we?" she asked.

"I think so," agreed Niou. "Okay, what do we do?" They paused in thought. "Just leave now and pretend nothing happened?" he suggested, he didn't like the sugestion, not at all.

"…Oh! I know! You know how it's always the tomorrow when you wake up in their bed that breaks the magic right?" she asked.

"Yeah, where you getting at?" questioned Niou grinning.

"How about no tomorrow, we have our fun but when the night is over we go our separate ways and never see each other again, no calling each other, no searching for each other," she suggested.

"But what if-"

"No! No 'what if's if it turned out to be really bad for one of us than we're safe from the other. All we have are the untarnished memories of this magical night, and when we're old and grey and we look back to tonight, it'd be perfect, magical..." Niou was wrong, he made a mental note to rethink how he saw woman, she wasn't the good student virgin type, maybe a good student but most likely not a virgin judging from their conversation.

"Okay, we need code names then," he said, she frowned slightly as she thought. Niou eyes caught sight of the tiny wrinkles that appeared on her forehead, he had the urge to just smother them with his finger. "I'll be…Trickster then." He kicked himself at the unimaginative code name but she smiled and seemed to like it.

"Then you may call me…Myeongwol," she replied.

"Myeongwol? Sounds Korean," Niou pointed out, he kicked himself mentally again, she came up with such a cool code name within seconds and yet he went by his nick name.

"It is," she shrugged. Niou stood up and left his beer on the marble base he held out his hand for her, she grinned as she abandoned her wine glass and tray of cakes as she took his hand. They began to sneak out of the ballroom when she stood. "Hey, since there's no tomorrow, how about we steal the flower bouquet?" Niou's eyes travelled along her line of sight to the flower bouquet on the one of the dinner tables.

"No tomorrow, right, I'm sure we're doing all the single females a huge favour by taking it," he said.

"It's a terrible tradition," she agreed as Niou slowly walked towards the table and grabbed the bouquet, the moment his hand touched it they ran.

"Where are we going?" she asked, Niou took her hand and led her to one of the music rooms upstairs above the ballroom, when they entered they locked the door behind them. "Now what?"

"Do something spontaneous."

"Umm…"

"No! Don't think about it, just do it, no tomorrow remember?" said Niou. Myeongwol took off her black Chanel stiletto heel plumps and handed them to Niou. "Okay?" She smiled as she did a back flip and then a ballerina twirl.

"Spontaneous enough for you?" she asked putting back on her shoes.

"Milady," said Niou bowing and offering her the bouquet.

"Aww, thank you," she took the bouquet and sniffed the white roses, she smiled as she did, but as she lowered her arms the smile vanished and she sneezed. Niou laughed and she soon joined in. "Urgh, it smells horrible," she declared handing it back to him. Still laughing Niou took the bouquet and opened one of the windows. "What do you intend to do with it?" Niou pointed at a gathering of bridesmaids sitting around the fountain with the best man and the rest of them.

"I'm going to throw it at them then sit back and watch them fight over it," he explained, she snatched the bouquet from him.

"I wanna do it, I'm the girl," she pointed out. Aiming carefully she threw the bouquet at the gathering before they both ducked from view as they laughed. "As I said before, it's a horrible tradition."

"So you're not going to have the bouquet at your wedding?" asked Niou.

"Of course, at that time _I'll_ be the one throwing the bouquet and looking at the single girls thinking 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'" she replied innocently, Niou chuckled.

"I'd want to be there to see that," he said honestly. They leaned against the wall as they sat on the carpet staring into each others eyes; hers was such a beautiful shade of blue, the same as her dress. She looked into his, they were a rich gold with a small tint of green, just staring into them would make any girl's heart melt.

"Is your hair naturally that colour?" she asked as she began to fiddle with his ponytail between her sapphire blue painted nails.

"Nope, but it suits me better than brown though, doesn't it?"

"True," she agreed twirling it around her fingers. Niou reached for her hair and fiddled with a few stray strands of hair that had escaped from the numerous white crystal snowflake decorated pins.

"I've always wanted to dye my hair black but my skin has a pink tone to it."

"So?"

"Have you ever seen a European with natural black hair?" Myeongwol frowned in thought once more.

"True," she said again. "Black looks horrible with pink under tone, how do you think I'd look with silver hair?" she asked. Niou pictured her hair silver.

"Horrible," he said honestly, she laughed lightly.

"You're very truthful…"

"Ask the many girls I've lied to, seduced, dined, wined, bedded then abandoned, not necessarily in that order," he said.

"Then have you lied to me tonight?"

"No, because I know you're smart enough to see through them," replied Niou honestly.

"So in my memory of tonight, you will be one of the few guys who don't lie to sleep with a girl," she declared. Niou opened his mouth to rebut but she covered her ears and began singing "La, la, la' off tune, he chuckled and pulled her hands from her ears.

"Fine, Myeongwol-san, what brings you here to this dreaded wedding?"

"Free champagne and cake," she replied with a serious face, Niou chuckled.

"Okay, a girl who eats with no guilt, I like that." He said as he leaned in closer and looked into her eyes.

"What about you? Why is a handsome fellow like you doing alone on a night like this with a roomful of desperate girls?" she asked.

"I'm bi," he confessed, she didn't laugh or break eye contact; she just stared unjudging into his eyes with a delicate smile. "My best friend forward slash the guy I've had a crush on since second year just asked his girlfriend to marry him."

Myeongwol made a sizzling sound. "Ouch."

"Hmm… I know… so it put me in a bitter mood so I decided not to get laid tonight," explained Niou. "Weird?"

"Yes, but weird is good, weird is…unique, weird is…"

"Fun," he finished for her. She smiled.

"Yes, weird is fun."

They sat side by side discussing anything and everything from first kisses to how horrible their lives were, at some point in their conversation the game of 'If you've ever…raise your hand'* appeared with the mist.

"Okay, if you have ever run into a door raise your hand," she said, they both did.

"If you have ever pushed a door that said PULL or vice versa raise your hand," they both raised their hands again.

"If you have ever argued with yourself, lost, and find nothing wrong with it raise your hand," two hands went up once more.

Horrid and lame jokes escaped their lips.

"Why did the plane crash?" asked Niou.

"Why?"

"Because the pilot was a loaf of bread." They laughed.

"I don't get it," she admitted as she giggled.

"Neither do I, but its funny."

"Okay, what did the ocean say to the crashing plane?" asked Myeongwol as she tried to compose her face.

"What?"

"Nothing, it just waved," they two laughed at the one ridiculous joke after another. Eventually the laughter died down, once again replaced by the pointless starring into the eyes.

Niou noticed a piano, sitting in the corner of the room, standing up he held out his hand for her's, she took it and followed him across the room. Niou pulled out the chair for her and she sat down, sitting beside her Niou began to play, his fingers skilfully glided across the keys. She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder as she listened, his music wasn't soft, not was it at all emotional, but it was compelling, powerful, each note echoed within you long after the key has been pressed.

Myeongwol smiled and stood up, walking to the middle of the room she began to dance a ballet on her tippy toes, it was un-choreographed and from the heart, her movements fluid and graceful as she dance. Slowly the music died down, Niou walked towards her and gently stroked her cheek before leaning in and kissing her.

She was surprised at first and Niou thought he had ruined it, but slowly she opened her mouth and kissed him back. He lowered her to the floor his hand exploring the smooth touch of silk against her legs, her hand found its way past his grey suit and to his bare skin.

When they broke apart for a few moments to breathe she asked cheekily. "Does this have anything to do with reason forty-nine?" Niou chuckled but didn't reply as he pressed his lips against hers once more.

* * *

"Oh! Everyone's gone," noted Myeongwol as she and Niou walked back into the ballroom, she placed the bouquet exactly where they had taken it from just to piss off the bridesmaids and the rest of the single females attending.

"It's getting late I guess," said Niou as he fixed the buttons on his shirt.

"Your flyer's undone Trickster," remarked Myeongwol. Niou looked down to check but to find it zipped up. "Gotch ya," she grinned kissing Niou as he looked back up.

"Damn," he cursed once they broke apart.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm going to have all these great memories," began Niou. "But I'm going to have one horrible one of you leaving through that door." Myeongwol frowned in thought then smiled.

"Close your eyes," she said, Niou closed his eyes. "Now count to ten."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Niou opened his eyes to find her gone and himself alone in the room, a sudden feeling of emptiness passed through him. It all seemed like an illusion, the perfect time he spent with her, but lying on the floor, was one of the clear crystal snowflake shaped hairpins she wore, he picked it up and held it still warm pin between his fingers, it shone like a rainbow under the dazzling moon light. The warmth of it, proof, it really happened.

*a game me and my friends based on a list of 'copy into your profile if…' for the full list look for my profile

**A/N: Depending on response i will keep this as a one shot or turn it into a series where he sets off to find her**


	2. Chapter 2

**Myeongwol Chapter 2**

Niou sat on the coach's bench, fiddling with the silver snowflake hairpin between his fingers, remembering that special night he shared with that girl, the girl by the name of Myeongwol. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the white fabric napkin on which he wrote the '50 reason's to sleep with someone'.

Break-up

Make-up

Can't get to sleep

Nothing on Television

Revenge

Rebound

Curiosity

Enforcement of good behaviour

Reward

You did something wrong

You have nothing to say

Nothing to do

He jumps into the shower with you and you go along with it

"Ha, I like number 41, 'you're dared to'," sniggered Marui looking over Niou's shoulder and reading the list. "What's this? '50 reasons to have sex'?" he asked.

"Get lost," replied Niou knocking Marui back.

"Come on, I saw you with that chick you know, what kind of team mate are you luring me to another girl and taking the pretty lass for yourself," said Marui.

"Get lost," repeated Niou. Marui frowned slightly and walked back to the rest of the regulars.

"Okay, you're right Yagyuu, something's off about Niou," said Marui. Kirihara nodded.

"Just yesterday a waitress leaned over him, her D cup was practically spilling out of her bra and he didn't even glance at them," he said.

"Was she hot?" asked Kuwahara.

"Very," confirmed Kirihara.

"He's just sitting there, moping about, where's the Niou who's putting a tack on someone's chair or filling someone's locker with tennis balls?" asked Marui. "You were right to be worried Yagyuu." Yukimura sighed.

"You all are over thinking things," he stated in is ever calm and controlled voice. "Look at the facts and information we have."

"He's holding a napkin from his father's wedding, something must had happened then," said Yanagi, his calm face calculating every possible reason behind his closed eyes.

"He disappeared halfway during the reception with a girl," remarked Marui, that night was the night of his first failed attempt to pick up a girl.

"Hot?" asked Kuwahara.

"Very, but more beautiful than hot," said Marui. Yagyuu frowned in confusion.

"What's the difference?" he asked pushing up his glasses, unlike many of his team mates, he was a one woman man.

"Hot is more sexy, beautiful is more pretty," said Marui, his horrid attempt to explain the difference as he spoke he thought of a large chested stripper with fish net stockings and an elegant princess in a sapphire blue dress.

"Huh?"

"That's not even grammatically correct," said Yanagi.

"Well, you know, sexy is more… slutty, big curves and all that," said Kuwahara trying to repair what Marui had broken. "Pretty is…umm…"

"I think I get the idea," interrupted Yagyuu saving Kuwahara the trouble.

"Well…umm…" Yanagi placed a hand on Kuwahara's shoulder.

"Have you heard the saying less is more? This is one of those times." Kuwahara looked down slightly embarrassed.

"Strange, I thought Niou-senpai's type _was_ big curves," said Kirihara. "I've seem the girls he's with, all of them, no less than a C."

"Well, that girl had a pretty good figure, not a D but a small C or large B," said Marui remembering the girl he had tried to ask for a dance, she brushed him off coldly.

"Let's move past her chest," said Yukimura shaking his head slightly. "He has a female hairpin; it must have belonged to her."

"Unless Niou-senpai likes to disguise himself as a chick," rebutted Kirihara honestly standing by his remark.

"With the following information I think it's safe to assume," said Yanagi ignoring Kirihara. "I think Niou's fallen in love." There was silence, no one spoke until Kirihara snorted.

"Good one," he chuckled running his fingers through his curly black hair. "You had me fooled wi-" his cut himself off as he looked at the serious expression of his senpais. "Oh! You're not kidding, are you?" Yukimura nodded solemnly but he was internally proud of Niou.

"Wow," said Kuwahara.

"You said it," agreed Yanagi. "Niou in love, there's more chance of a bear falling in love with the tuna he caught for lunch." There was another awkward silence.

"Gentlemen and Kirihara," said Marui seeing the funny side to the situation once the shook wore off. "You see over there," he nudged to Niou. "A once proud and powerful lion who once skilfully tracked his prey and pounced for the kill-"

"Should we be expecting to find a roomful of dead corpses at Niou's place then?" whispered Kirihara, Sanada smacked the back of his head with his hand. "Hey! Why me?"

"-now look at him, in love, his sharp claws now trimmed and his teeth blunt, you now see before you someone no more than a obedient house cat who is locked in the zoo in the cage called his heart. Where he is forced to mate the same old lioness over and over while people pay to watch-"

"This metaphors falling apart," whispered Yagyuu quietly to Yanagi who grinned.

"-take pictures good men as he is caged, chained and bounded by the horrid thing called love for he now the pitiful remains of the once great Niou Masaharu." Marui finished with a graceful bow, no one clapped as they watched Marui wipe a fake tear from his eyes.

"We need to help him," said Yagyuu touched by not Marui's speech but the idea of Niou falling in love. Yukimura nodded in agreement.

"How? We don't even know who she is or what they did?" stated Yanagi; imaginations went wild at this sentence.

"If this incident affects his tennis," said Sanada. "Then it will be a severe blind point on our third consecutive victory." Typical.

"What do we do?" asked Kirihara.

"Simple," said Yagyuu. "Ask him," he handed Marui his tennis racquet and walked towards Niou. "Hey, you okay?" he asked sitting next to his doubles partner.

"Not really," admitted Niou fiddling with the hairpin. Yagyuu held out his hand for the pin, reluctantly Niou handed it to him.

"What happened?" asked Yagyuu examining the pin. Niou went on to explain what had happened on the night of his father's wedding while the rest of the regulars snuck up behind them to listen. _That was easy,_ thought Yagyuu expecting only a bottle of vodka to make him talk.

"She was…wow, just wow," said Niou a small smile on his face. "She was so funny, so smart, and the way she dances and smiles-"

"Let's not forget she was hot," remarked Marui earning him another wack on the back of the head.

"Ignore them Niou-kun," said Yagyuu.

"She was perfect, just perfect," said Niou. "But I guess that was the point of the night."

"What do you mean?" asked Yukimura sitting on Niou's other side, unlike the others he was sincerely curious. Niou had left out many of the more private details from his recount of the night.

"We made a deal, it'd be a one night thing, that way the way we remembered it will be untarnished," said Niou. "Well, I guess I better stop moping around then and move on."

"Wait, why?" asked Yagyuu.

"I don't want to ruin it, for her or for me, we intended the night to be perfect then we go our separate ways, that's just the way we planned it. Now we'll move on and never see each other again."

"Why? Why don't you find her, the chances of you finding such a girl, she might be the one," said Yagyuu.

"The one?" echoed Marui as he grinned.

"Well sorry for believing in soul mates and dream weddings since I was a little boy," snapped Yagyuu.

"You sure _boy_ is the right word?" asked Marui, Kirihara snorted.

"Niou, you need to find this girl," insisted Yukimura.

"No! No, no, no, no, no… No," said Niou.

"Really? Seven no's?" asked Marui.

"No, no, no ("Okay, 10 then," remarked Marui), what if she doesn't turn out to be quite like how I remembered?" asked Niou. 'Worse, what if I don't meet her expectations; I'll be ruining the whole thing."

Niou didn't know what to do, he wanted to see her again, hold her again, kiss her again, look into her eyes once more. He shook his head, what was happening, this wasn't like him. This sissy lovely dovey stuff, this wasn't like him at all, he was turning into…Yagyuu.

"No, I'm not going to look for her," he said firmly. "We made an agreement; I'm not going to break it, no way. And this," he snatched the pin out of Yagyuu's hand, Marui hurriedly grabbed the napkin. "Hey!"

"Dude, if your going to throw it away, at least let us get a good laugh out of it," said Marui.

For the next hour the regulars abandoned their training and read the list, by the time they were at 25 all but Yagyuu, Niou, Sanada, Yukimura and Yanagi was laughing with tears and stiches at their sides, Yagyuu, Yukimura and Yanagi were just smiling and laughing politely while Sanada and Niou sat there with a sour expression.

"This is brilliant," gasped Kirihara between giggles, he was sitting on the floor clutching his sides.

"Okay," said Marui the laughter died down slightly. "Reason to sleep with someone number 36 'You dropped food in his lap and he thought you were making a move and you went with it." This continued for the next half hour, when they finally reached 49 'the condoms are about to expire' and 50 'to change you test scores' even Yanagi's sides were hurting.

Marui returned the napkin to Niou. "Hey, you went from 27 to 29." Niou checked the list.

"Damn, that just makes this 49 reasons for sex," he cursed but then shrugged. He scrunched the napkin up and walked to the nearest bin, as he was about to throw the two artefacts away he stopped himself and placed them in his pocket. _It's alright to hold onto this one memory…isn't it?_

* * *

Weeks went by and Niou acted as if the incident never happened but he didn't tell them of the small box he kept under his bed containing the two objects, he held onto them and always kept the box close by. His new family was under the impression the box contained a very expensive porn poster but he never bothered to correct them. It was personal and for him only, it told him of all the people in the world no matter what they thought, there'd always be one person who truly believed he was a good person.

Niou encased himself in a layer of steel armour, returning to his old player habits and kept his heart behind a wall of ice. Yagyuu and Alicia's relationship no longer bothered him. He was happy for the two, being the sweetheart lovers that they were.

"Want to go get mackers?" asked Marui one day as they walked home from another intense training session, not much had changed even after they started high school, they still had a ridiculous training session and Yanagi, Yukimura and Sanada were already regulars in the

High school tennis club and Kirihara had yet to destroy the middle school tennis club… yet. The only major change was that Niou stopped bleaching his hair silver, at first he found his natural hair colour of brown strange but as time passed he'd gotten use to it.

"To celebrate our first successful week in high school," agreed Kuwahara. Yagyuu, Anita and Niou just went with the flow.

As they walked down the busy street Niou accidently bumped into a black haired girl dressed in a Hyotei uniform.

"Sorry," she said and gave him an apologetic smile. Niou froze, that voice, that perfume, that face, that smile. He turned around to speak with her but she was already gone. Suddenly he realised, the perfect armour he had encased himself in, it was riddled in cracks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Niou-kun calm down!" demanded Yagyuu grabbing Niou's forearm and stopping him, many heads turned at the commotion in the café where the 8 regulars of last years Rikkai middle school tennis club sat. Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi were already regulars on the high school tennis team; while Marui, Kuwahara, Niou and Yagyuu were sub-regulars ready and willing to take their senapi's places at the first sign of weakness. Kirihara managed to bring Rikkai to the Kantou tournament without a single defeat but Yukimura had strictly instructed him not to get confident, with Sanada's fist in the equation he was very careful.

"I saw her! Don't you dare say I imagined it because she bumped into me and she felt solid to me!" shouted Niou yanking his arm from Yagyuu. Niou had told the rest of the regulars what he saw the day before, he intended to find her, seeing her again made him realise what he should have done months back. But his team mates thoughtless dismissal of his claim to have actually seen her made him snap.

"That's not what I was going to say," said Yagyuu. "Didn't you say you weren't going to meet her? What happened to the promise you two made?"

"I'm the trickster, promises mean nothing to me," replied Niou ("Better keep that in mind the next time I lend him money," whispered Kirihara) he wanted to speak to her again, ever since that night, he felt as if she had taken his heart with him, seeing her again felt as if she was squeezing it with her hand telling him to hurry and find her.

"Niou, listen to us," said Yukimura patiently. "I'll be straight with you, your description of this girl you spent four hours with, I hate to be the one to say it but she's…"

"Mary-sue!" remarked Kuwahara.

"Unrealistic," said Yagyuu gently.

"Think of it, what type of girl puts up with your smug remarks and even helps you make a list of reasons for sex?" asked Marui. "It's either she's really a he or she's ugly, and I saw her, she wasn't ugly."

"Jane Doe!" added Kirihara, Sanada hit him at the back of his head, Jane Doe was a name giving to unnamed deceased corpses.

"You built this image of the girl in your head Niou-kun," continued Yagyuu. "What if she doesn't meet your expectations? What if she doesn't recognise you? How would you feel? How would she feel if the man she imagined wasn't you?"

"Niou sit down," said Sanada, Niou obeyed unwillingly.

"Are you willing to take such a risk?" asked Kuwahara.

"Do you even know who she is before you go storming Hyotei?" asked Marui.

"_Aside_ from how she looks," added Yanagi. Niou swallowed, the honest answer was, no, he had no idea what her real name was let alone what form or year.

"But," he began. "I've got to take the risk," he said looking at his hands. "If I don't, I'll never know, ever since that day I haven't been able to move on, as much as I've tried…I still think about her, a lot."

No one spoke, if he had been thinking about her none of them had noticed, he was a trickster after all. Finally Yukimura smiled.

"Shall we help the poor fool?" he asked. Yagyuu smiled as well and sighed.

"It'll be un-gentlemen like behaviour if I see a friend in distress and not help him."

"So, how do we do this?" asked Kuwahara.

"Marui, do you still have that bridesmaid's number?" Niou asked Marui. Marui shuffled through his contact list in the section labelled 'Random chicks' he scrolled down before stopping at one labelled 'Niou's party, bridesmaid, big boobs'.

"Here," said Marui handing Niou his phone. "What are you going to do?"

"They were sitting at the same table, maybe they spoke to one another," replied Niou.

"Wouldn't it be easy to just ask your step-mum for the guest list?" questioned Kirihara, there was another round of silence.

"You know Akaya, your not as dumb as you seem," remarked Marui. Niou was already ringing his step-mum.

The conversation went on for several minutes; half was for when his mother rummaged through the guest list to find one that matched Niou's description.

"So a girl, black hair, blue eyes?" she asked, Niou's wrist was getting sore from holding the phone to his ear so he decided to put her on speaker.

"Yeah," replied Niou.

"What colour was she wearing?"

"Why?"

"All guest were asked to wear a certain colour according to their relationship to the bride and groom," she answered.

"Blue, royal blue," replied Niou. He could hear the shuffling of papers from the other end of the phone.

"You mean sky blue right?"

"No, royal blue."

"But sweet heart, we didn't assign anyone the colour dark blue of any sort, it clashes with the reds and oranges," replied his step mother.

"Then who was she?" asked Niou. "She couldn't have snuck in; the plaza you used for the wedding has complementary guards and cameras."

"Hush dear, I'm trying to think," replied his step mother patiently. "Hmm…why don't you ask one of the guest from the wedding, where was she sitting again?"

"The far corner near the main entrance," replied Niou.

"That's where all the bridesmaids sat, I'm sure you already have their numbers."

"What's that suppose to mean?" asked Niou.

"Nothing dearest, remember I'm making pasta for dinner so don't be late." With that she hung up, Niou sighed; his new mother had a one track mind that could be distracted so easily. He dialled the number Marui gave him and waited for someone to answer but he hit another dead end.

"Blue dress? I don't remember," she replied. "Do you know what shoes she was wearing? I do love shoes."

"There's no way he knows what shoes she wore," remarked Marui.

"Actually," Niou recalled when she did a back flip. "They were black, channel, stiletto heel, decorated with crystal snowflakes."

"With a silver buckle and patent leather?" she asked, for some reason excited.

"Yeah actually, wait patent leather is that shinny stuff right?"

"Yes."

"Then yeah…why?"

"Oh my god! Those shoes you just described, limited edition Chanel summer collection! There are only 100 of them in existence! I heard a store in Japan had them but when I went there to check them out they were waaaaay out of my price range."

"How much are they?" asked Niou, she responded with a 5 digit number. "That's not a lot!"

"US dollars," she added. His mouth fell open.

"For a pair of shoes?" asked Marui, he shook his head. "Girls…"

"Do you know where the store is?" asked Niou. She told him the address and ended with a sly comment for Marui.

"Now what?" asked Kirihara.

"If she's telling the truth, then the chances of the store keeper remembering who brought those shoes are high, I mean think about, there are only a 100 in existence so they're bound to remember who brought them," replied Niou.

"Yagyuu, Yukimura, I think you two should take the lead on this one," said Marui.

"Why?"

"Be honest Niou, what business do you have with a girl that can afford such shoes?"

* * *

"Excuse me," asked Yukimura politely. One of the workers at Channel turned around and blushed as she looked at him and his companions.

"Y-Yes?" she asked. "How may I help you?"

"Well you see," began Yukimura indicating to Yagyuu. "This fool over here, he meet this girl and fell head over heels for her at first sight, we've been trying to track her down but the only thing he remembers are his shoes."

"And what type of shoes would that be?" she asked her breathing was uneven, if this kept up she'd probably be in the back hyperventilating.

"Chanel summer edition black patent leather pumps," said Yanagi. "We did research in hope to increase his chances," he explained.

"W-well, I'll see what I can do," the female walked towards the reception desk and began typing into the computer. "We've had three pairs in stock, ever. Two buyers used credit cards and one..."

"Do you have a name?" interrupted Yukimura.

"The two who used credit cards are both wives of wealthy business men in their late forties, I highly doubt that either are the ones who brought them, the third..."

"What's wrong Shannon?" asked an older woman.

"Nothing, it's just," she went on to explain the lie they had told.

"Ahh! I remember," the older woman chuckled. "Surprised me she did that child, no more than 15, I thought she was made walking in her on her own."

"Do you remember who she was?" asked Yanagi.

"I do such a pretty little thing she was, black hair and such lovely eyes and her jacket, DKNY I tell you, one glance was all I needed. She was such a sweetie, so polite but when one of the other customers began creating a commotion," she laughed. "My did she have a sharp tongue, she scared the woman wits end she did."

"But do you remember who she was? Her name?" asked Yanagi again.

"No, unfortunately," replied the woman, Yagyuu sighed in disappointment. "But she paid through a bank transition and membership card, should be here." She clicked through the computer; a picture of a female matching Niou's description appeared along side a profile beside the photo, in English.

"Yanagi, what does it say?"

"It says here her name is Sa-ku-ra-no Tsu-ki-yo-mi," read Yanagi. "Born in September and 15 years of age."

"We found her," said Yagyuu, he wrote down her name, age, postal address and mobile number. "Thank you so much," the three bowed politely.

"It was nothing, but I do hope you find her."

* * *

"I still can't believe they gave you her personal details," said Marui shaking his head. "What happened to privacy?"

"It was probably Yukimura's charm," said Kuwahara.

"So we know her name now which is good," noted Kirihara.

"Sakurano Tsukiyomi, Myeongwol…moon…of course!" remarked Niou. "Myeongwol is Korean for Shining moon! Tsuki! Moon! Of course!"

"Doesn't he sound happy?" remarked Yanagi.

"I'm glad, he hasn't had this much energy for ages," said Yagyuu. "Shall we take a trip to Hyotei now?"

"How do we get in?" asked Kirihara, Yukimura turned his head to look at Marui.

"You're kidding right?" He shook his head and Marui sigh. "Fine, I'll give Jiroh a call."

* * *

"Where do we start?" asked Kirihara as the eight regulars walked through the front gates of Hyotei and made their way to the high school section.

"The main office?" suggested Kuwahara.

"No, I don't think that'll work," said Yagyuu. Marui seemed distracted as he stared blankly into space and almost walking into several Hyotei students.

"What's up Marui?" asked Kuwahara.

"Neh Jackel, have you heard the name Sakurano Tsukiyomi before?" asked Marui.

"No, I don't think so…why?"

"It's nothing, it's just been bugging me for a while, I could have sworn I've heard that name somewhere that's all," replied Marui in distress. "I'll remember sooner or late, I hope…"

"Hey, look," Kirihara nudged to the tennis courts where many were training, their ages varying from 12 to 17 years; the middle school tennis club alone had 200 members and their corresponding clubs with just as many.

"We didn't come here to pick a fight Akaya," said Sanada, he'd barely spoken all day and when he did he was usually giving lectures or instructions.

"No, but…"

"Akaya."

"No, I mean, there," he pointed to one of the tennis courts, cement stairs sank lower with ever step to form viewing positions for those watching a tennis match. Kirihara's senpai looked to see where he was pointing. Atobe Keigo, former captain of the middle school tennis club and regular on the high school tennis club had just finished his match against Oshitari Yuushi fellow regular.

Niou's eyes weren't on them, but on a girl standing near them dressed in the Hyotei uniform, he recognised her right away, there she was, standing there, not a illusion, not a memory but the really person, Myeongwol. He ran towards her.

"Myeongwol!" he shouted running, he slowed down and stopped right in front of her. "Myeongwol, hey! I finally found you! How you been?" he asked her, she looked at him curiously.

"Ello," she replied softly, her voice, it sounded lighter than he remembered and softer.

"Hey, I'm sorry for appearing before you so suddenly," he smiled apologetically. "But I had to see you again, every night I've been thinking you; I couldn't get you out of my head. I know we promised not to see each other again, but I kept thinking maybe there is something between us."

"Huuh?" she tilted her head to the side, the sound she made sounded musical almost as if she was singing a harmonious note. "Have we… met… before?" she asked.

"Huh!?" Niou ran his fingers through his hair in embarrassment when it clicked. "Oh! I used to bleach my hair silver, do you remember? I grey my hair out at the back as well in a pony tail." Pain struck him, she really didn't remember him, the confusion in her eyes was obvious.

"Haa uhh," she sang softly again tilting her head to the other side.

"Lenali is something wrong?" asked Atobe a towel over his shoulders as he walked towards them; she looked at him with wide eyes. "You are?"

"Umm…well," Niou was having a hard time speaking; perhaps that night wasn't so special to her. "Umm, well, no, it's nothing, I mistook her for someone else," said Niou forcing a smile and blinking back tears. "Nothing, sorry bout that," Niou turned around and began walking away.

Lenali tugged on Atobe's shirt. "Haw ah uh," she sang in her melodious soprano voice. Despite the sound she made not being English Atobe understood what she was trying to say. "Myeongwol?" she asked, the way she spoke sounded like a child learning to speak for the first time.

"Wait here okay?" asked Atobe kissing her on the forehead, she nodded obediently and waited with Kabaji as Atobe chased after Niou.

"What happened?" asked Yagyuu worried.

"Got dumped?" questioned Kirihara earning himself another smack to the back of his head.

"She doesn't remember me," replied Niou quietly.

"Maybe she's not her?" suggested Yukimura, Niou shook his head.

"That was her," he said confidently. "But she doesn't remember me at all, no sign of recollection at all."

"Maybe it was the hair? I mean you look a hell a lot different than before."

"No, even then there would be at least _some_ recognition, she probably, forgot all about already."

"Hey you!" said Atobe walking towards Niou, Niou's head turned. "Yeah you, name?"

"Why?" asked Niou.

"You said you knew Lenali, right?" He nodded uncertainly. "Just in case, her name? The one you know her as that is."

"Sakurano Tsukiyomi," replied Yagyuu when Niou was unable to answer. "Niou met her some time last year at his father's wedding."

"Before or after winter?" asked Atobe.

"Before," replied Niou. "Why? It's not like she recognises me."

"But you recognise her," Atobe pointed out. "That's what matters."

"I don't follow."

Atobe glanced back at Lenali then at his watch. "Do you have time tomorrow after classes?"

"N-" Niou looked At Yukimura who sighed at nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Tomorrow, 4:30, 'Antique', you know it?" Niou nodded. "Meet me there okay? I need to tell you something." With that he turned and walked away not once looking back.

"Jerk," muttered Marui.

"He was full of shi-" Kirihara held his tongue after Sanada glared at him.

"What do you think that was about?"

"Looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out."

* * *

Antique was a five star restaurant located in Atobe hotel not far from Hyotei and very exclusive, Niou decided to go alone convincing Yagyuu by promising to tell him everything that he told him. He'd bleached his hair the night before back to its silver self, he didn't know what, but something happened the day before that gave him the push. Niou settled back into his silver quicker than he did for his brown hair but it had its disadvantages as he walked to the entrance of Atobe Hotel.

"Going somewhere sunshine?" asked a tall muscular guard stopping Niou.

"Stop it," commanded a familiar voice, Atobe walked towards them from inside the hotel dress in his Hyotei uniform. "He's my guest."

"I'm very sorry Keigo-sama," said the guard stepping back and letting Niou through.

"What happened to your hair? Ahh?" asked Atobe.

"Bleached it," was Niou's blunt reply. Atobe led him to the Antique restaurant signalling to a waitress she led them to a private room reserved for VIPs.

"Order anything, it's on me," said Atobe sitting down on a very comfortable looking leather seat.

"No thanks," replied Niou sitting opposite him. "So, what is it you wanted to tell me? Hurry up and get it over with."

"Here, first read this," said Atobe handing Niou a newspaper clipping.

* * *

"Ah!" exclaimed Marui as a ball bounced past him.

"What's wrong Marui?" asked Kuwahara returning the ball to the opponent's side of the court.

"I just remembered," he said, quickly he ended the match as fast as he could the end result being 6-0 and he ran to Yukimura. "Come with me," he insisted.

Marui led Kuwahara and Yukimura to the library and borrowed one of the computers, typing into the web address bar he clicked enter and waited for it to load.

"What's going on?" asked Yukimura.

"Just wait and you'll see."

The address led to a newspaper article dated six months back covering the story of the murder of the famous actress Sakurano Tsukino. The article told the story of her death, she had returned home to find her lover pinning her daughter to the floor and raping her daughter. She grabbed a katana on display on her walls and hit him with it. He let go of her daughter and turned his attention to Sakurano, assaulting her and knocking her head against the floor and walls, she died a week later in hospital. Seeing her mother being beaten right before her eyes her daughter Sakurano Tsukiyomi stabbed him in the neck with one of the silver hair ornaments her mother wore in her French twist.

"Oh," whispered Kuwahara.

"The poor child."

* * *

Niou was speechless. "What…she…my god," was all he managed.

"When Sakurano was still alive she gave a statement saying what had happened, he was charge with assault, rape, possession of drugs, child abuse and attempted murder giving him life in prison. She died before the verdict was given from an undetected blood clot in her brain, the police searched for weeks for her daughter who had ran out of the house at the sight of blood; her whereabouts were unknown until a family reported a missing female suffering from amnesia and mind regression," said Atobe.

"That family was you?" asked Niou. Atobe nodded.

"I returning home from school when I saw her lying on the streets, she wore nothing but a ripped dress and a blanket around her that was splattered in blood. I took her home, our family doctor patched her up and she stayed with us while my parents tried to find out who she was. We sent her DNA to the police and waited, a few weeks later we had a hit but she had no living relatives, her mother engulfed herself in work and had no close friends. Mother always wanted a daughter and decided to adopt her; all her mother's possessions and life insurance have been placed in a trust fund for her when she turns 18."

"Does she not remember anything?" questioned Niou.

"No, when we found her she had lost the ability to speak even walk having to relearn them, but she has her own way of communicating," said Atobe thinking of how she sang. "If you could, maybe spend some time with her and hopefully jog her memory."

"Sure," replied Niou. He didn't know what to think anymore, all he wanted now, was to help her, and hopefully, she would remember.

"Thank you."

Atobe hadn't completely truthful to Niou, although all he spoke of was the truth; he'd left out many details in his story, many details.

**A/N: The next chapter is 6 months earlier starting from when Atobe finds her in the streets.**

**Review and wait for the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Hyotei! Hyotei! Hyotei!" the war cry of a defeated team still echoed in his head as he rode in the back of his Volvo. He looked out the tinted glass windows of his car, the sky seemed to reflect his cloudy mood as it began to rain.

"How was the match Keigoboc-chan?" asked the driver trying to break the awkward silence.

"We lost," was the dull reply. Atobe just kept looking out of the window, as the rain poured down the road began blurry, a mere smear of colour, greys, blacks, greens all the colours you'd expect when driving through a suburb. As he glanced back for one moment he spotted something. "Stop the car!" he instructed, the car pulled to a halt, he raced out and into the rain.

A white duvet laid at the side of the road, splattered with blood as it covered a female not much younger than Atobe himself; lifting her off the tar road and into his arms he gently shook her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, warm tears trickled down her cheeks, she was shivering from the cold, the bloodied duvet her only cover from the rain, her clothes were ripped to shreds and her body covered with bruises, both new and old. "Hey, can you hear me?"

All she whispered was, "Trickster…"

* * *

"Is she okay?" Atobe asked his mother Atobe Anne; an English born business woman. He stood beside her as they watched a doctor carefully examine the female's wounds as she laid unconscious in one of the Atobe mansion guest rooms.

"So far they found more bruises on her body than I have fingers," replied his mother crossing her arms over her black suit. "We've already reported her to the police but it'll probably take weeks even months to find out who she is and what she's been through."

"What do you think happened to her?"

"Rape, assault and a long list that ends with me suing the bastard that did it," assured his mother, Atobe smiled and kissed his mother on the cheek; it was well known where he got his personality from.

"Atobe-san," said the doctor, a male in his late thirties. "We're done; may I please speak to you in private?"

"Sure, is something wrong?" asked Atobe's mother leading the doctor out of the room and to her office. Atobe sat down on a chair beside the bed as the nurses packed their equipment and left the two alone in the room.

"Hello," Atobe felt like an idiot talking to an unconscious female, looking closely, past the many bruises on her face she was quite beautiful. Long black hair and pale skin now purple with bruises, she'd seen hard times. How long was she out there in the cold before he found her? Would she have frozen to death? Would she have died? Knowing he'd saved her life lightened his mood, she needed him. Even if it was for one moment, he was needed by someone.

Slowly she began to stir, opening her eyes she revealed a pair of sapphire blues eyes, it suited her hair and skin tone. At first she looked around aimlessly, but her breathing began to grow heavy, a heart rate monitor began to pick up pace as her eyes flickered around the room.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked reaching to calm her down, she pulled back and her tried to scream but her throat was dry, slapping away his hand she scratched him with her nail as she tried to run. Pulling at the tubes and wires inserted into her body she tried to run but her legs were too weak to even stand and she stumbled to the floor. "Hey," Atobe moved towards her and once again she slapped his hand away, pure fear in her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" asked a nurse running into the room, when she spotted her on the floor and moved towards her but the female managed to find her voice and screamed, lashing out at anyone who came near her she backed herself into a corner of the room, trembling in fear.

* * *

"Amnesia or more specifically in this case mind regression," explained a doctor. "She's lost all ability to speak, understanding the human language even the knowledge of how to walk."

"What caused it?"

"Human beings have a tendency to unconsciously block out unwanted memories and experiences from their past, my guess, she went just that little bit further."

"Is there a cure?"

"Only time will tell, but most importantly we need to create an environment for her where she feels safe, waking up with wires and needles inserted into her arms certainly didn't help her cause…"

* * *

Atobe peered through a small gap between the door and the doorframe as a nurse went inside and carried her lunch out, it was untouched, all the girl did was sit in the corner of the room, at in the end the doctor had begun feeding her through a tube but the damage to her mental state was so great, it further traumatize her.

"Has she not eaten a thing?" he asked as the nurse exited the room, he hated seeing her pinned down with a needle stuck into her body.

"No, she hasn't eaten since she got here, whenever someone enters the room she hides in the corner, the doctor tried to talk to her but she scurried away, Atobe-sama has decided to call a psychiatrist."

"More strangers will only make it worse though," Atobe pointed out.

"Don't you think I know that? More old farts looking down their hooked noses at her, real good it's going to do," she sighed and walked away. Atobe took one last look at her before he left for school.

* * *

"You ask," whispered Shishido Ryo.

"No way," replied Oshitari Yuushi as the two stared at Atobe as he smashed a ball. "If the fan club finds out that Atobe was scratched, they'd probably hunt the perpetrator down and kill them."

"Probably make it painful as well," added Shishido.

"Hey Atobe, where'd you get that scratch?" asked Mukahi, the red head was almost a entire head shorter than his captain but twice as energetic.

"Mind your own business Gakuto," replied Atobe coldly as he threw a ball in the air, Mukahi frowned in thought.

"Did you get a cat?" he asked, for the first time in years Atobe missed the ball.

"What?"

"Come on, I know the signs, you got a new pet and it scratched you so your angry," elaborated Mukahi, Atobe continued to looked at him as if he was filth. "Wait right here okay?" he said before running off.

"A cat?" whispered Shishido, Oshitari shrugged.

"I always pegged him as a dog person but looks like I was wrong."

When Mukahi returned he trusted a picture book in Atobe's hands titled 'Your first pet', Atobe rolled his eyes when he spotted the name of the Author 'Kukahi Mugato'.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A book, picture book for that matter," replied Mukahi. "Use it, follow it's instructions and it'll have its rewards."

* * *

_Congratulations! You just got your first pet; your new pet will be scared and afraid of its new environment. Let it roam its new home and during this time keep a distance between the two of you, be there but do not communicate, let it know you're there and mean no harm. No physical contact of any kind during this phase!_

Atobe sat in her room reading a book and pretending not to notice her, from her hiding place she stared at him curiously, still unable to walk she dragged her legs across while crawling, surprising, she made little sound.

_Your new pet is now familiar with its surroundings, retain a small distance between the two of you, but now acknowledge its existence, smile, and wave or call out her name. Only when it willing comes to you on its own can you pat her._

As she continued to curiously gaze at Atobe he set aside his book and smiled at her.

"Hey," he greeted, slowly she moved towards him, always stopping after a few steps and taking one back for every three, Atobe waited patiently, she was interesting to watch as she prowled around the room. Slowly, but surly she sat next to him watching him as he fiddled with the closed book in his hand.

Unsure, he reached towards her, she flinched slightly and Atobe pulled his hand back, after a while of sitting in silence he tried again, this time she did not move and proceeded to let him pat her on the head. She giggled as she took his hand and began examining it, comparing it to her own; she held them up for him.

"Ahh! La nahh lee," she said, her soprano voice sounded no more than a child who could not speak. Atobe smiled sadly as he watched her fiddle with his book, the book mark fell out but he didn't mind, she fascinated him. As she flipped the pages she accidently cut herself and dropped the book, her eyes began to water from the pain as she held out her cut finger.

"Hush now," said Atobe softly, although unable to understand his words she understood his tone and wept in silence. Atobe raised the finger to his lips and sucked the blood; removing a bandaid from his pocket he bandaged the cut. "There."

She raised her finger to the light and examined it, gently poking the bandaid on her finger, laughing and giggling as she did. Atobe smiled once more, his stomach grumbled when he spotted the tray of untouched of food on her bedside table. Reaching to it he took one of the apples when he noticed her starring at him; he reached for another apple and handed it to her.

She held the apple in her hand looking at it then at Atobe, he raised his apples to his lips and took a bite, chewed then swallowed. She watched intently as he ate, looking at the apple she took and bite, aside from a few dribbles from the corner of her mouth she did extremely well for one who had forgotten how to eat.

"Monkey see Monkey do," said Atobe, be brought the tray and placed it before him, picking at the fruit and eating it little by little as she copied. "Come to think of it, I don't know your name; I don't think you know your own name either."

"Lee ahh lee," she sang softly, Atobe smirked and ruffled her long black hair causing her to giggle.

"Le ahh lee," he echoed. "Le-ah-lee… how about Lenali? The first words you ever said to me. How do you like that?" Lenali smiled as she reached for another grape and popped it in her mouth. "Lenali it is."

* * *

Days passed, the time Atobe spent with Lenali was what he lived for, the moment he returned from school and training he went to her room, every time, she'd be looking out of the window, searching for him and every time he entered the room she'd hug him tightly, as if afraid, afraid he'd leave and never return.

"She's grown attached to you," noted his mother.

"Have you found anything on her past?" asked Atobe but she shook her head.

"Not yet," she replied. "Keigo, listen to me, they ran a rape kit on her a few days back, it came back positive." Atobe swallowed. "We're currently searching for the person who did this to her, and Keigo," she looked her son in the eyes. "When we do, I'll personally make sure he spends life rotting behind bars."

Atobe never doubted his mother, she was the type of person who'd make a promise and always keep it, except for her wedding vows, those Atobe thought was justified by the fact she and his father never had much communication between them.

"Keigo!!!" exclaimed Lenali as Atobe walked through the door; Lenali threw his arms around him. "Keigo! Keigo! Keigo!"

Atobe smiled down at her, she'd begun learning to speak again having already taught herself how to walk, run and swear (with credit to Atobe), the colour returned to her skin and she the bruises disappeared.

"Hello," said Atobe. Lenali opened her mouth and imitated him but it wasn't perfect.

"Ello," she said, Atobe shrugged.

"Close enough," he sighed.

"Close enough," she copied.

"How'd you get _that_ spot on but mess up hello?"

"Ow'd you get that spot on but mess up ello?" she said, Atobe smiled and laughed, although bewildered at first Lenali joined in. Days turned to weeks and there was still no word on her past, Atobe almost began to wish she would never be identified.

But one day as he searched for the single working pen in the Atobe mansion, Atobe rummaged through his mother's desk, she never minded, he was to take control of the company some day and it was good that he showed interest. As he searched he came across a file sitting at the top of a large pile of them which had fallen to the ground as he search.

"Shi-" but Atobe held his tongue, the last time he swore Lenali learnt it right away. As he picked up the files he came across a photo of Lenali, dressed in a red pink kimono along side a beautiful woman with long black locks and wore a black kimono. "What the?" he began looking through the rest of the file.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"-also about the budget cut I mentioned last week, start making calculations on how much we can cut back," said Atobe Anne as she sat in her office on the top floor of Atobe Corporations. She held her mobile to her ear and listened to his response. "No, don't email it, have it on my desk by tomorrow…yes tomorrow, goodbye." Ms. Atobe sighed and placed her LG Env touch on the desk. Reaching for her cup of coffee she took a large sip and sighed in relief.

"Hahaue!" demanded Atobe as he stormed into his mother's office.

"President I'm so sorry," said her assistant at the door. "I tried to stop him but-"

"Its fine," said Ms. Atobe waving the girl away, she bowed and closed the door behind her. "May I ask why, my son, are you barging into my office in such a manner?"

"This," said Atobe slamming the photo onto the table. "Explain."

"I've had it a while," she answered coldly.

"Why haven't you told her? She has a family!" shouted Atobe.

"Because she's important to you," replied his mother, Atobe fell silent. "I can see it, I'm no fool, the moment you get home you go to her room, you talk to her even when she doesn't understand a word and you listen to her even when all she says means nothing! I'm not blind!"

"This is unfair," said Atobe quietly. "Her family deserves to know where she is, so why?"

"When the police figure out who she is we'll send her home, but until then she'll stay here," said his mother coldly. "Unless offcourse you want me to send her home now?" Atobe opened his mouth to answer but closed it.

"She doesn't remember anything, I'm all she knows, if she goes back there then she'll be frightened," he justified. "She _needs_ me!"

"Does she really?" asked Ms. Atobe. "Or is it the other way around? Her father is the CEO of the Hargreaves group while her mother was his mistress, after she was born they fell apart and she moved back to Japan. Aside from $10,000 American dollars being put into her bank account every month by her father they have no contact at all, her mother is currently in hospital and not in an shape of taking care of her, she knows her daughter is in my care, we've been friends for a long time, I knew who she was the moment I saw her, she's a splitting image of her mother."

"If Lenali's mother already knows where she is why didn't you tell me!" demanded Atobe.

"I wanted you to realise you've become dependent on her, and her name's Sakurano Tsukiyomi not Lenali, remember, because I've already promised her mother the moment she leaves the hospital I'm sending her home."

"By 'a while', what did you mean?" asked Atobe. "How long have you had that photo?"

"Four years."

* * *

Lenali looked out the window and watched as Atobe left for school, she sighed, she knew he'd be back, he had promised, but she was bored, none of the maids spoke to her, even the nurse made an effort to keep some distance.

"Do you miss him already?" asked a voice, Lenali turned around to see Anne, Atobe's mother and Shiki, according to Atobe he was assigned as her butler/caretaker/bodyguard. He was fairly tall, long black hair tied up into a pony tail at the back and dark void eyes, he scared Lenali, but he never yelled, never shouted and despite his naturally scary face his voice and touch were always kind and gentle.

"Good morning my lady," he greeted, Lenali nodded in response.

"Ah!" she replied.

"Aww, you're so cute you know that!" remarked Anne embracing her tightly, a light sparked in Anne's eyes and she held out a tennis shoulder bag out to Lenali. "Shall you pay him a little visit?"

Ah?"

* * *

"Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na," declared Atobe as he walked off the court, although they had lost at the Kantou as a senpai he still had a responsibility to his juniors to train them.

"Impressive as usual," said Sakaki clapping his hands. "Your timing with your left foot is a little but I'm sure you've already noticed, aside from that a spend game."

"Thank you very much," replied Atobe bowing before taking his towel from Kabaji and drying off his sweat. He opened his drink bottle and took a long gulp.

"Three opponents at once and you won 6-0 impressive as usual," said a voice with an Osaka accent, Atobe looked up to see Oshitari Yuushi, the team prodigy.

"Yo," he replied. "Haven't seen you here for a while." Oshitari shrugged.

"I had studying to do," he answered. "You too though, you've stopped going to after school tennis practice all together." Atobe shrugged as well.

"I promised my mother that I'd start learning about business seriously once the nationals were over, I have to keep my promise even if it's a little early."

"Next year we'll be high school students, if you use your position as Hyotei's tennis captain, you'll get a sport scholarship and you won't even need to take the entrance exam, that along side being student council president and class president, you won't even need to take the class selection exams and be put in 1-A for sure. Will you still play tennis next year?" asked Oshitari.

"Of course," answered Atobe. "But I'm still not sure about joining Hyotei's high school tennis club though."

"They've already made it to the nationals this year," noted Oshitari. "That's the twentieth year in a row, last year they even beat Rikkai high school and this year they're runner up. Their on a completely different level than Middle school, even you can't defeat each and every one of them like you did your first year here. Most of the current regulars are on scholarships and didn't even attend Hyotei middle school." Atobe smiled.

"What's this? You really want me to join the tennis club don't you?" he asked. Oshitari shrugged.

"I'm not going to join if you're not," he answered. "Even if Gakuto is, without you it'd be boring."

"Why thank you, I'm glad I can amuse you, but I'm still not sure." Oshitari smiled.

"That's just like you." Atobe looked at the genius and smirked, but it faded when he spotted Lenali behind him.

"Le-" He stopped up knocking down his drink bottle but she had vanished. _A vision?_

* * *

_Where an I?_ wondered Lenali as she walked across the grass oval, she bit down gently on her lower lip, she was lost and scared, tears had begun to form in her eyes.

"My lady, are you alright?" asked Shiki quietly, placing a comforting arm on her shoulder. Lenali nodded.

_Why did I agree to this?_ She though to herself, she turned around and opened her mouth wanting to ask Shiki where to they were but words wouldn't form, along with her memory, her brain had forgotten how to form words.

"We are currently as Hyotei Gakuen," said Shiki gently almost as if reading her mind. "Keigo-sama attends this school."

"Kei?" she asked, Shiki nodded, her lips relaxed into a smile. "Here." She tugged on Shiki's arm holding onto his sleeve.

"Shall we go find him Lenali-sama?" he asked, Lenali nodded.

* * *

"Atobe, are you alright?" asked Oshitari.

"Yeah," replied Atobe. _There's no way, she' at home…there is absolutely no way, and how would she know? Did she follow me?_ "I'm fine, a match?" he offered.

"Sure," agreed Oshitari picking up his racket. The two walked towards the tennis court. "Smooth or rough?"

"Smooth," replied Atobe. Oshitari span his racket and it landed with the backside up.

"I'll serve first," said Oshitari, Atobe nodded and stood at the baseline waiting for him to serve.

"Kya!" squealed one of the girls.

"Atobe-sama!"

"Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe! Atobe!" the crowd chanted.

_They're getting to be annoying_, thought Atobe. He smiled, before he would have been the one conducting the chanting. Oshitari served, quickly the emperor returned the ball and ran towards the net, Oshitari hit a cross but Atobe managed to catch up and he hit a volley earning him the first point.

"Love 15!" shouted the referee.

* * *

"Lenali-sama?" asked Shiki looking around, amongst the crowd of squealing females Lenali was nowhere to be seen. "Lenali-sama?"

Lenali pushed her way towards the front of the crowd, they were all chanting Keigo's last name over and over again, was he at the centre of it all? Knowing him he probably was, she held onto the tennis racket and tennis bag Anne had given her, using it as a leaver to help her way through the crowd, finally she made it to the centre, in front of her was now a wall, and on the other side was Atobe.

"Kei!" she exclaimed climbing over the wall towards him. Atobe responded to the voice and looked to his right to see Lenali running towards him, he relaxed his stance but it was too late, Ootori Choutaro, known for having the fastest serve in the kantou tournament, had already served, and Lenali was running right towards the ball.

"Lenali! Watch out!" he shouted and ran towards her, but he wouldn't make it in time. Lenali froze and looked to her right to see Ootori serving the tennis ball; he hadn't noticed Lenali on the court. Just by listening the sound it made anyone could tell it was a fast, heavy and powerful shot, if it hit her, it would hurt.

Without thinking Lenali removed her racket from the tennis bag and raised her arm prepared to swing, when the ball was just in front of her she hit it with a underhand slicing motion at exactly the right angle converting all the speed into spin and returned the ball back to the other side of the court flawlessly, Ootori was too stunned to return.

"Huh?" was all Lenali managed before her knees gave way, but before she hit the ground Atobe caught her in his arms.

"You are really full of surprises," he said with a fond sigh.

* * *

"_Who_ is she?" asked Mukahi for the fifth time as Atobe wiped the sweat from Lenali's forehead as she lay unconscious on the coach bench.

"I don't know," admitted Oshitari. "But I've seen her before…somewhere."

"Yeah, me too," agreed Shishido. Ootori nodded while Jiroh snored beside them.

"Lenali-sama!" said Shiki running towards them and jumping over the cement wall, he knelt down beside her and checked her pulse. "Is she alright?" he asked Atobe.

"She's fine," answered Atobe handing Shiki the towel.

"Google," said Mukahi pointing at Taki; a former regular; who'd already taken out his mobile and was searching the net.

"She returned Choutaro's serve, she's not just anybody," said Shishido looking at her warily.

"Nothing," said Taki looking up from his phone. "The only Lenali I could find is 10 and lives in England."

"She _could_ be ten," remarked Ootori. Taki shook his head.

"Currently in America, anyway _this_ Lenali's blonde," said Taki pointing at his phone.

"Lenali is just a nickname, her real name is Sakurano Tsukiyomi," said Atobe. Mukahi didn't even need to say Google, Taki was already typing.

"Got it!" he remarked raising his hands in triumph. "Sakurano Tsukiyomi, 15 years old, model and the face of the Hargreaves group and Noir de Rogue, a business empire with roots in almost every field from hospitality to medicine, and the latter a top class brand in Europe and America."

"Who cares about that! Tennis!"

"Oh, right, she's won the female's single nationals last year, but for some reason this year she didn't show up to her Kantou finals match and was disqualified, suspected of drug and alcohol abuse, she's been missing for almost a week and has caused major headlines all over Europe."

"I didn't see anything like that," remarked Shishido.

"Yeah, but you can't read Japanese properly let alone English," remarked Mukahi.

Lenali stirred and opened her eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Atobe with a smile.

"Kei!" exclaimed Lenali throwing her arms around him and breaking into tears. "Ball! Blur! Racket! Swoosh! Ah lee boom mah ah! Ke pu hit de ma!" she said in a mix of words and random sounds.

"Get that?" asked Mukahi to Oshitari.

"Not a word."

"It's okay," said Atobe. "I'm fine, did the ball hit you?" She shook her head and continued speaking in her version of a human language.

"Ah! Meh ah be ehh meh puu!" she rambled on; Atobe placed a finger on her lips to silence her.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "Why are you here?" he asked directing it at both Lenali and Shiki.

"Anne!" remarked Lenali holding up the racket and the tennis bag. "Anne gave me."

"Anne?" asked Mukahi.

"Atobe Anne, Atobe's mother," replied Oshitari. "Or I _think_ that's who she meant."

"Sounds just like my mother," Atobe sighed. "Since you're here, want to play some tennis?" he offered.

"Tennis?" asked Lenali. "Wot?"

"Like this," said Atobe standing up and picking up his racket, he bounced the tennis ball a few time before serving the ball, it bounced and hit the wall. "Tennis," he said again. Lenali nodded and stood up knocking the tennis bag onto the floor causing Mukahi to laugh and even Shishido to smile.

* * *

"It doesn't fit," said Shishido as he watched.

"What do you mean?" asked Ootori.

"That," he said waving a hand at Atobe who was teaching Lenali how to serve. "It's like watching a bear raising the tuna he caught for dinner like a daughter."

"Thank you for the colourful analogy," replied Oshitari.

"Like this?" asked Lenali as she pretended to hit the ball in the air.

"Yep," replied Atobe. "So now that you've got the basic, want to play a match?" Lenali nodded absently not knowing what she was getting in to.

* * *

"Sleepy," said Lenali sitting down, Shiki handed her a towel and she wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"You mean tired," he corrected her.

"Both," she answered.

"Here," sad Oshitari handing Atobe a small chip the size of his thumbnail.

"What's this?" asked Atobe.

"A motion sensor," explained Oshitari. "It records the number of strokes and wind resistance to five an accurate graph of how many swings you've done and how intense the training it, you put it at the bottom of the tennis racket, there's a version for shoes and running as well."

"Thanks, Taki put it in for her," said Atobe throwing at the former regular.

"Sure," he replied taking Lenali's racket and opening the bottom only to find that there was already one there. "Bucho! Look!" he remarked showing Atobe the chip.

"Hmm? Mother must have put it in them; shall we have a look at how she did today then?"

The five regulars, Shiki and Lenali gathered around Taki's laptop and he placed the chip inside a USB and putting it into the computer.

"That's strange," remarked Taki looking at the records.

"What?"

"There's more than five months worth of data on this," he remarked. "Wow, these are some impressive scores," he added.

"An average of 3,500 swings a day," read Oshitari. "Average intensity 9, speed of swing highest speed reached is 140m/h, average swing speed is 100m/h, that's comparable to a male' tennis swing. Just a week ago she did 4,000 swings in less than 3 hours."

"Wouldn't your arm get tied after 1,000?" asked Mukahi.

"That's just you," replied Shishido.

"That's strange," mused Taki.

"What?"

"It just suddenly stops a week ago," he explained. Atobe looked at Lenali's shoes; chances were they were the ones she wore before.

"Lenali take off your shoe," said Atobe, Lenali pointed confusedly at her feet, Atobe nodded, obediently she took them off and handed them to him, turning one over he saw another chip at the bottom and removed it. "Taki, here," he said handing him the chip, he plugged it into the computer and the records appeared on the screen.

"Whoever owned this chip is a machine," remarked Taki. "20km every day at least, judging by the time stamps, it's 10 in the morning and 10 at night. And there's a whole bunch of other thins in between."

"Can you tell who owes this?" asked Shishido.

_They were in Lenali's shoes, so who else_ thought Atobe but even thought he knew who it belonged to when Lenali's name Sakurano Tsukiyomi appeared he was still surprised.

* * *

Lenali sat curled up by the window beside Shiki with a book of the English alphabet. "A for apple," he said slowly, she echoed him perfectly before he turned the page. "B for Banana."

"B for Banana," she giggled at the word.

"C for Carrot," he said.

"C for Ca-ca…"

"Ca-rot."

"Caa-rot?" Shiki nodded.

"D for Durian," he said. "That one might be a bit too hard, shall we skip that one my lady?"

"Duu-ree-en," said Lenali pointing at each letter as she spoke. "Durian." Shiki smiled proudly and ruffled her hair, she was a fast learner, perhaps it was because her body still remember how to read and speak.

"Very good my lady," he praised. Lenali turned the page and read.

"E for Eggplant?" she said although her voice told him she wasn't sure, he nodded and she smiled and turned the page again.

"You seem to be having fun," said Ms. Atobe walking into the room. Shiki stood.

"Anne-sama," he said in his deep voice as he bowed, Lenali held the book into the air.

"Fun," she echoed with a smile as Ms. Atobe sat beside her and leaned against the glass. "Anne?" Ms. Atobe sighed and took a cigarette from her pocket as well as a lighter.

"I promised her I'd quit," she said quietly fiddling with the cigarette between her fingers. "Yet here I am," she smiled sadly and looked at Lenali. "You really do look like your mother," she said gently running her fingers through Lenali's hair. "I'm not sure if you understand me or not but, I'm sorry, I really am, she's gone, my best friend, your mother, she died not even an hour ago." Tears began to tickle down Lenali's cheeks; she raised her hands and touched the wetness coming out of her eyes with curiosity.

"Huh?" Lenali wiped away the tears. Shiki smiled sadly as he took a handkerchief from his breast pocket and whipped Lenali's face.

"They're called tear Lenali-sama," he said kindly.

"You're so honest, just like her," said Ms. Atobe. "I'm sorry, I want to cry as well, but my tears have all dried up. I'm sorry," she placed an arm over Lenali's shoulder. "Looks like you're stuck with us."

* * *

That night Lenali tossed and turned in bed.

"_There is no such thing as a genius, just naturals," said a male voice._

"_But geniuses do exist, I mean your one."_

"_I work just, no probably more, as hard as the one next to me," he replied. "Tennis just comes naturally to me; my body is more capable of converting all that training and practice into results."_

"_I don't get it, I admit your toned but, I can't picture you working hard at all."_

"_I could say the same to you, your skin is all pale, but on the other hand I __**do**__ know you train a sickening amount every day and your hands have scars from when you gripped your racket so hard you bleed." His companion's face blushed._

"_You as well, anyway… I just want to be as good as a tennis player as you."_

"_You won the nationals while you're still a second year, you're as natural as they come, your also as good a tennis player one could even possibly want to be at your age."_

"_No, I don't agree, there's something else, something's missing."_

Lenali sat up panting; she buried her face into her hands and cried, as she did she whispered the first words that came to mind.

"Ryoga-nii."

**Hey! School has started and I've just started VCE and there is a lot of Homework so I might not update for a while! Sorry there are spelling mistakes but I was tired and beaten up when I wrote it. Tell me and I'll correct it.**


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